Many automatic chemical analyzing apparata are currently in use, and in particular, automatic chemical analyzing apparata used for clinical tests in hospitals are based on a method in which each sample can be analyzed in terms of a plurality of items and in which samples having different test items are analyzed in such a manner that the test items are automatically changed while continuing the chemical analysis of test items corresponding to new samples.
There are variations in the apparatus associated with the above technique, which, for example, is well known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,056 to Sakurada.
A disadvantage of such system is that the reagent supply, which includes a large number of reservoirs containing different reagents to provide greater flexibility so as to be suitable to change test items from sample to sample, occupies considerable space in addition to the space occupied by the cuvette rotor.
Thus, the above machine is somewhat wasteful of the space. In addition, there have been certain problems, such as complexity of the units, cumbersomeness, and cost, associated with the drive mechanism and location mechanism for the large size reagent supply to position the programmed reagent into position aligned with the movement of a pick up and dispensing probe for picking up the reagent and moving and dispensing it into the cuvette of the cuvette rotor.